


His Hands Feel Like Home

by a_daydream_believer



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hope you like, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, Light Angst, One Shot, idk - Freeform, this is somewhere in season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 04:55:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19456792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_daydream_believer/pseuds/a_daydream_believer
Summary: Blinded, wounded, and alone during a mission, Artemis panics. Can her teammates reach her before anything truly terrible happens? Or will she be left to panic by herself?





	His Hands Feel Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is a kind of old work, found it, dusted it off, hope you enjoy!

She was separated from the group.

Paranoid? Slightly.

Ready for a fight? Yes.

Scared? Not in the least.

Artemis was a big girl. She knew how to defend herself, even if she was low on arrows and had a bullet lodged in her knee.

Pursing her lips, she tried to call out through the mind link that M'gann had set up. Considering it wasn't working, she assumed that M'gann was down for the count. Looked like she needed to find her way back by herself.

Limping as she quietly moved around, arrow already notched, she spun quickly where she'd heard a loud 'BANG'. Hissing quietly and clenching her teeth as the pain headed straight to her knee, her eyes scanned the part of the building she'd been looking through.

Of course she had to be partnered with Wally. And of course the speedster had decided to go on ahead without her before the cieling collapsed and separated them.

Now she had no one to watch her back, just like when she was a kid. Oh, wonderful memories.

At yet another sound, this time footsteps, she spun yet again. Agitation and paranoia rising, she whispered harshly, "Kid Flash, is that you?"

"Not quite~!" An unknown voice sang. Turning to face her opponent, Artemis stumbled back as the world was plunged into darkness.

Gasping, Artemis aimed where the villain had been as she silently panicked. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes tightly and opened them rapidly, but her vision was still gone. Everything was dark, and empty.

The villain laughed from somewhere to her left, taunting her, "Pretty hard to defeat your enemy if you can't see them. Hah, it's a pretty cool power, right?"

There was the sound of feet rushing towards her. Letting an arrow fly in the direction of the footsteps, she tensed and hoped it had hit it's mark as the footsteps stopped.

A second went by, and she reached for another arrow. There was a noise in front of her before she felt something bodily hit her torso. Unprepared for the blow, she skidded down the hallway, landing with a hollow thud on the tiled floors.

Coughing, the wind knocked out of her, her hands twitched on the pavement as she struggled to get up. Pain flared in her knee, protesting as she forced herself up. Arrows scattered and bow out of 

reach, she put up her hands in a boxing pose.

Shecouldn'tsee _.  _

_ SheCouldn'tsee.  _

_She Couldn't See._

Panic rolled through her mind in waves. She'd practiced this scenario. The whole team had, but it didn't prepare her for the on-field panic.

Her mind was reeling, shock made her tense as footsteps circled her. Honestly, she'd probably do more harm than good in her current state, especially if back-up came and she couldn't tell friend from foe.

"Aww, poor girl. You're nervous aren't you?" The villain purred, stopping somewhere in front of the blonde, "Panicking at the loss of quite an important sense, right? There, there, this will be over soon enough!"

With that, Artemis felt a foot connect with the side of her head. Holding her ground as adrenaline made the pain go down to a dull throb, she grasped at air, trying to find her opponent.

This was supposed to be an easy mission. Get in, steal information, and get out. But of course it couldn't go simply. She was blind, mid-fight, and with no back-up.

' _ -mis! Artemis?!'  _ A voice rang in her head. M'gann must have regained consciousness. Great, so now she was just blind in mid-fight, with maybe back-up.

' _ Here! I'm on the third floor, no idea where Wally is. There's a villain with the power to blind people if you look into their eyes!'  _ Artemis shouted through the mind link, grunting as she was kicked in the knee with the bullet in it.

A few seconds went by before Robin's voice asked, ' _ Does that mean you can't see right now?' _

' _ Exactly Boy Blunder I-'  _ her thought was cut off a sharp kick to her stomach slammed her into the wall. The air left her lungs in a choked gasp. Coughing as she crouched to the floor, Artemis wasn't giving any thinking time as she was punched in the face.

A solid 'crack' filled the air.

Feeling blood dribble across her lips, she knew her nose was broken. Flicking away the liquid in  disgust, she tried to stand up again.

A wave of dizziness tried to bring her back down.

She refused to be completely useless, though her breath becoming too short. All at once her stomach twisted, her fight or flight instinct thrumming through her veins loudly. She could hear her heartbeat in her head.

_ thumpthump thumpthump thumpth- _

It seemed to be getting faster and faster, even though she knew she had to slow her breathing down it was so, so hard. She just wanted it to  _ stop _ .

She needed to get up.

Fight.

Everything in her body seemed to be telling her  _ FIGHT _ . GET UP AND  _ FIGHT _ .

Trying to ignore her knee, throbbing head, and friends shouting her name, she was taken off guard by a sudden wind that could only be brought on by a speedster.

Artemis flinched before sitting up slowly and leaning against the wall. The villain let out a yelp before the sound of a body hitting the floor filled the hall.

Over the mind link, she heard Wally assure everyone, ' _ Don't worry, she's alive. I've got the info and her.' _

' _ Good. Everyone, retreat back to the bio-ship,'  _ Aqualad instructed as she felt Wally's presence beside her.

Grey eyes unknowingly met green. Wide and unseeing, she raised her hands as her body shook with adrenaline and other emotions she was too ashamed to name.

"Artemis," Wally's familiar voice called out, approaching her slowly. Like she was a wounded animal: s kittish, and ready to run. The footfalls stopped right in front of her.

Some paranoid side of her raced through her mind. The side made a part of her unable to believe it was really Wally. Nothing felt real anymore as the fact that she was blind truly set in. Everything seemed dangerous. Unknown, and not to be trusted. Keeping her hands up as if to shield herself, she felt embarrassed at the way she shook but unwilling to let down her guard. After all, what if this was just a trick. An enemy disguising themselves as Wally. What if she needed to protect herself.  _ What if she- _

There was a heavy thud as Wally sat beside her with a, "Hey." She imagined him, sitting beside the wounded, shaking mess that was her. In a soft tone, he continued, "You need to calm down, Artemis."

She didn't stop shaking. It had to be a trick. It  _ had  _ to be. Wally's voice was never that  _ soft.  _ He was always loud, energetic in his own way, even on missions.

"Artemis,  _ listen  _ to me," he told her, his voice still strangely soft. A hand suddenly was on her back, between her shoulder blades.

She knew those hands. Warm and square. Comforting, like a warm blanket or an old sweater. Just how they felt when the team had lost their memories and he'd carried her. Sped her away. These were familiar hands. She could almost cry in relief, but that didn't stop her erratic breathing.

"You're having a panic attack," Wally pointed out, voice still too soft, "You need to breath, or else you're going to pass out."

Artemis wanted to deny it, protest the fact, but opening her mouth she found nothing came from it. Her voice was reduce to nothing but an inaudible whine. Her breathing was still too fast and rapid.

She realized she was hyperventilating, body thrumming along with her too fast heart beat. It was difficult to hear over it. Realizing, it was a panic attack then, and yet despite that, she wasn't able to calm herself.

Her eyes were still wide. Searching for something,  _ anything _ , yet still finding-

_ Nothing _ .

Wally slowly tugged one of Artemis' hands, laying is flat over his own chest. She could feel his heartbeat. The steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.

"Alright Artemis, I want to to breath with me," the speedster said, waiting for her to nod. In her mind's eyes, she imagined Wally sitting next to her as he instructed, "Okay, here we go. Deep breath  _ in _ ," she felt Wally's chest rise as he sucked in air before it fell, releasing the breath as he finished, "and  _ out _ ."

Artemis tried, and failed, to copy Wally's instructions. Her breathing still too fast, her head throbbing. Blood still dribbled from her nose and blood around the bullet in her knee barely clotting.

"Don't stop trying. In...and out," the red headed, freckled teen murmured slowly. The hand that wasn't pressing her's to his chest, gave her free hand a small, reassuring squeeze.

Turning her hand, she grasped at Wally's. She needed to feel his hand. It was slightly sweaty from the fighting and running around, but also warm and grounding. More so than the breathing exercises they were trying.

After a few minutes, she finally found herself breathing normally again. Artemis found as she calmed and the adrenaline washed away, she was actually in quite a lot of pain.

Her abdomen ached while her head felt like it were a drum being beat. Her eyes burned from not blinking enough, and she could pretty much feel the bullet lodged in her knee. Bending it as she had, she'd probably pushed it more into her muscle. 

Attempting to at least solve one problem, she closed her eyes, having them open wouldn't do her good anyways.

A deep sigh came from beside her. "Gee, I thought you were about to pass out there Artemis, you okay?" Wally asked, hand still holding Artemis' twitching one as if to pull away.

Gripping his hand tightly, Artemis blurted, "Please don't leave." She must have been more panicked than she had though if she was clinging onto  _ him _ .

"Wha-? I'm not going to lea-"

"I meant  _ don't let go of my hand _ ," she hissed, realizing that she was willing to resort to begging if it meant not being stuck in this  _ darkness  _ all by herself. To have an anchor while the world around her had turned into nothingness.

For a moment or two, Wally was uncharacteristically silent before squeezing Artemis' hand back, 

"Alright. But I'm going to have to pick you up, the team can't wait forever."

They both stood, adjusting themselves as Wally scooped her up and ran to the bio-ship. They were greeted with questions of concern and pats on the back.

As the team took off, even if they noticed, no one commented on the fact that they were still clutching each other's hands.


End file.
